A Non-partisan Political Commentary for Those Who Prefer To Think for Themselves

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Illegal Immigration: The Facts

Let’s look at some facts concerning illegal immigration in this country. According to the American Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), 18% of illegal immigrants fall below the poverty compared to 11% of native born Americans, and they are twice as likely to try to obtain some form of taxpayer based assistance. Did you realized that between $11 billion and $22 billion dollars is spent by state governments annually to provide aid to immigrants? That’s our hard earned tax money NOT at work, at least for us. Approximately $2 billion a year is spent on WIC, food stamps, school lunches and the like. $2.5 billion is spent on Medicaid for illegals, while $17 billion is spent on “anchor babies”; that is, babies born in the States to mothers here illegally. Thus the child is automatically a US citizen, and “mom” gets to stay here, in large part at your expense, as the caretaker.

The Center for Immigration Studies in Washington DC estimates 1.1 million illegal children attend taxpayer funded schools. Not surprisingly, the majority don’t speak English. So, guess who gets to pay for the in-class translator? Yelp, you and I do. According to the California Department of Education, the cost of educating its three million children of illegal parents will cost their taxpayers $38 billion dollars. In Colorado, which has an estimated 200,000 illegal aliens, the cost to its taxpayers is $140.6 million dollars according to the Colorado Department of Education. Even in Georgia, it’s costing their citizens $230 million dollars to educate the children of illegal aliens. FAIR estimated that residents of Kentucky (which has a hard enough time educating its own students) spent $51.6 million dollars just in 2004 to educate the children of illegal residents and that number keeps increasing. The PEW Hispanic Center estimated that in 2005, there was between 30,000 and 60,000 illegal immigrants living in Kentucky (http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_researche5a6).

Let’s talk a little about crime. Statistically, illegal aliens have a crime rate more than double White non-illegal residents. Currently, the US has the highest population behind bars than any other industrialized nation. Of that, 30% are illegal aliens. $3 million dollars a day is spent to incarcerate illegals in US jails—that’s per day folks complete with three squares and free medical care. Dr. Deborah Schurman-Kauflin at the Violent Crimes Institute (www.drdsk.com), located in Atlanta Georgia, wrote in 2006 that she conducted a year long in-depth study of 1500 sex crimes committed between January 1999 and April 2006. Her conclusion was that Americans face a serious threat from sex predators crossing the border.

Dr. Schurman-Kauflin reported that based on a population of 12,000,000 illegal residents, in which young males make up the largest portion of the population, the proportion of sex offenders was higher than that of the general population as a whole. To break the numbers down into understandable terms, it means that an estimated 93 sex offenders and 12 serial sex offenders cross our border every day. The 1500 offenders in this study had 5999 victims; that’s an average of 4 victims each. 53% of these were child molestations; 24% were rapes; 41% were sexual homicides and serial murders. Of the child molestations, 47% were Hispanic, while 36% were White. Asians, Blacks, and other nationalities made up the remaining 8%, 6%, and 3% respectively (I bet you've at least thought about checking on your kids at this point).

Of the rape cases, an amazing 64% knew their attackers. Hispanic and White victims made up 34% while Black women and other nationalities made up the balance. And these weren’t simply rapes (which is bad enough). 70% of the victims were beaten, and weapons were usually used. The average age of the victim was 23 years old. 3% of the rapists were categorized as serial rapists. Each serial rapist averaged 5 victims each. 6% of those raped and murdered were also mutilated according to the study. The most common method of murder was bludgeoning. The next most common method was stabbing. Both White and Black women were most often the victims of rape and murder (Whites had a higher percentage). Their average age was 42 years old and apparently socioeconomic class was a factor, the majority were in affluent areas. You can read more of Dr. Schurman-Kauflin’s study by visiting her site athttp://www.drdsk.com/articles.html#Illegals.

While “hard” figures are difficult to come by, an estimated 4 to 10 million people entered the US illegally along our southern border (you remember our southern border don’t you? It’s the one we were promised would have a fence along it with adequate security personal. The same one that folks in Washington keep failing to fund). According to the National Policy Institute, it would cost upwards of $230 billion to deport the illegals we already have in this country (gee, would be nice to have that fence wouldn’t it?). Here’s an interesting little fact; did you know that illegals send approximately $45 billion dollars back to their native country? Wow, that sure would go along way to offset the money they’re costing us. Shame our government can’t freeze those funds.

None of the three contenders for President have offered any serious avenue for change. So what do we do? Well, for one thing, the President doesn’t make the laws. That’s the job of Congress. For now, we need to make sure we elect responsible leaders to Congress (yeah, I snickered when I read that out loud too) who will get off their backsides and address the illegal immigration issue while we still can. Email them; write them; call them at every opportunity and badger them to start protecting America and Americans. Secondly, demand that companies have an “English Only” policy. No more “Press 1” for anything. Write or emails companies and demand “English Only” on their product labels. Report crime and form block watches and neighborhood associations. Insist that your children are exposed to a broad spectrum of cutural and language classes in school and not be resrticted to Spanish only language classes (as is the case in Kentucky public schools---frankly, they’d be better off learning Chinese). Lastly, don’t stop fighting for what’s right…ever.

Rush Limbaugh and Illegal Immigration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHPm_TEQ0PA&feature=related

Pay close attention to the last part of the video.

We have another article by our very own “Moderate Man”. Take a look at what he has to say:

Politicians Promoting Themselves

I don’t have any problem with politicians promoting themselves, regardless of party. In fact there can be unexpected benefits that come from the experience. What we can learn from the issue is their character, values, morals, priorities, behavior, beliefs, etc. Yes, it could be corny or it could be confrontational. It is a good way for the voters to learn about the elected official, beyond the election canned agenda and information. Let me first say, there are many good politicians who follow the rules and laws. But I do have a problem with elected officials who use public money to promote themselves. Money that should have been used for the tasks that they were elected to. I have always believed that if you do a good job, people will remember that better than any other method. Many politicians promote themselves using public money. So many that the public seems numb and apathetic about it. These examples are but a few that come to mind. The past governors (you name either party) of Kentucky traveling around the state passing out ceremonial large checks for budget items. They should have just put the check in the mail. How about a United States President who has a letter mailed to inform recipients of a future tax rebate to its citizens.

Many politicians travel to events supporting lower and upper ticket candidates and especially around election time. Some try to mix in elected business travel to make it appear they happened to be in the area. Some try to stiff the taxpayer with the bill for travel till a public outcry makes it an issue. Some lower ticket candidates try to attend events for popular upper ticket candidates. They mug for cameras, try to get interviews, pass out their campaign materials, etc. They may try to pass the travel cost on to the public, by driving in a public supplied car, helicopter, etc. hoping they don’t get caught and coming up with a lame excuse to attend in it. One method of self promotion that is practiced by our Jefferson County Clerk. Every few years as required by law, she returns surplus budget money back to Louisville Metro Government in a December city council meeting with another one of those large ceremonial checks for 2-3 million dollars. It makes her seem like a trusty financial steward of taxpayer money. However, her office is given 6 to7 hundred thousand dollars in each yearly city budget. The council should eliminate this and let her operate on her fees and her surplus. The city money can be used for other Louisville Metro Government needs in these trying times. Just mail in the check.

Poll Results

Our last poll asked if public meetings should be mandated by government. 100% of you said “yes”. I couldn’t agree more. They work for us, not the other way around.